CHESTER, Pa. — As ugly as it looked and as nervy as it felt, the San Jose Earthquakes’ 1-1 draw against the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night was a small but definite step forward.

Magnus Eriksson scored his first goal for San Jose before halftime, and Andrew Tarbell made seven saves in his best performance of the season.

And despite continuing a pattern of conceding second-half goals, the Quakes escaped the blustery banks of the Delaware River with a rare point earned in the Eastern Time Zone.

“We are here to try to win the game, and it’s just one point,” said coach Mikael Stahre. “But still, it’s no defeat. And I think that’s real important, with how we handled the last minutes.”

San Jose went 0-4-1 in five Eastern Time trips last season and hasn’t won during a cross-continental trip since a victory over D.C. United in August 2015.

And perhaps jet lag partly explained why they were often second-best against a Philadelphia side that snapped 265 scoreless minutes with Alejandro Bedoya’s equalizer.

“I think if you look at the game, we should be happy with the one point,” Eriksson admitted.

Still, despite being outshot 22-9 and conceding 61 percent of the possession to the hosts, there were subtly encouraging signs that differed from San Jose’s two previous defeats.

Tarbell’s acrobatics rescued the Quakes in the first half. Considering the Union’s pressure, though, centerbacks Yefferson Quintana and Harold Cummings performed admirably in their fourth game together. Florian Jungwirth dropped deep to help later in the match.

Jungwirth may be forced into a defensive role again next weekend after Cummings received a postgame red card for elbowing a Philadelphia player in the final moments.

“The chances that we gave up, in my mind, they were controlled situations,” Tarbell said. “So our back four did a really good job of controlling the air, controlling the long balls and keeping guys in front of us.”

Then there was Eriksson’s goal, complete with a finish of the caliber expected by players who sign contracts like his Designated Player deal.

It came from a counterattack against Philadelphia’s high pressure. Anibal Godoy’s throughball freed Danny Hoesen down the right. Hosen dragged a cross back toward Eriksson near the edge of the penalty area.

With defender Jack Elliott closing, Eriksson unleashed a thunderous strike into the top corner with his weaker-right foot, giving San Jose a 37th-minute lead.

It may have the Swede’s best right-footed goal of his career.

“I should remember, because there is not so many.” Eriksson deadpanned. “I usually score one or two on the right every year, and one or two on the head, and the rest with the left. Now it sounds like I score a lot.”